6 Good Reasons To Include Podcasting In Your Marketing Strategy

Modern marketing sure has a lot to offer the hungry entrepreneur, whether it’s AI, virtual reality, influencers, or marketing automation. Perhaps you’ve thought about starting a podcast for your brand, yet are still undecided? For those still on the fence, here come six good reasons to reach for the mic and represent your brand.

1 . Potential to widen your reach

According to SmallBiz Genius,’ 51% of Americans over the age of 12 have listened to podcasts.’  While Statista reports that the number of podcast users in the US was ‘75 million in 2018.’  With all this potential to tap into, creating a podcast could widen your reach. You could stand to extend your popularity beyond your current target demographic.

2. Deeper connection with your audience

Creating a podcast allows you to build a deeper connection with your audience. Your consumers will get to know you and your personality, which will improve the authenticity and appeal of your brand.

As Marc Manon puts it, ‘ the medium of podcasting and the personal nature of it, the relationship you build with your listeners and the relationship they have with you, there’s nothing like that.’ 

In the last few years, especially, we’ve seen plenty of evidence that audiences enjoy getting to know the faces behind the corporations. This could be through twitter engagement, Instagram stories, or video marketing. Throughout the process, you’ll also improve your personal branding as an entrepreneur.

3. Become a thought leader 

Marketing techniques share the ultimate end-game of selling products and services, yet some tactics provide benefits beyond this. When you create a podcast, you get to research and discuss the hot topics in your industry and offer others plenty of knowledge and insight. Over time the knowledge that you offer will gain you credibility and respect. You’ll become an established thought leader within your sector. 

It’s advisable not to make your podcast too formal in tone, most follow a conversational style, as it’s suggested that this resonates the most with listeners. It’s not to say that you can’t explore topics in-depth, but you should always focus on entertainment value.

4. Improve your SEO

Podcasting feeds into other marketing tactics, including good old SEO. Since podcasts are essentially audio blogs, you can optimize them using keywords as part of the meta descriptions and meta titles. You should aim to use both long-tail keywords and short ones, to cover all bases. If your podcast episodes are featured on authoritative websites, reference these links on your site to drive traffic. Including transcriptions of your podcast episodes can help Google to interpret the detail of your content. Another thing you can do is to provide links to your episodes on social media to increase your visibility. 

5. On-the-go marketing 

Podcasting is the ultimate on-the-go marketing tactic. Users can’t easily read a blog when they are walking down the street, but they can tune in to a podcast. By creating a podcast, you allow yourself to become a part of people’s daily routine. Many will choose to take a stroll and listen to a podcast instead of plugging into their latest Spotify playlist. It’s these moments of leisure time that you want to tap into, to provide valuable knowledge, entertainment, and a dash promotion on the side!

6. More than marketing 

Nicole D’ Angelo believes that ‘ with some serious thought about what kind of stories your brand can tell, you have what you need to begin making an engaging podcast, no matter what industry you are in.’ 

With these words in mind, we can consider the idea that podcasting is more than marketing alone. While podcasting can be used as a marketing tool, it’s also a creative form of entertainment. When you create a podcast, you are giving your brand a unique edge, with something valuable to offer beyond your services alone. It’s here that you have an opportunity to set yourself apart from the competition and showcase exactly what makes you unique.

Further marketing advice

Great marketing is about constantly improving your tactics, which means keeping up with the latest trends. Besides podcasts what are the other marketing trends for 2020?

• Personalization: this year it’s all about personalized marketing, seeking to offer individualized content.
• Creative presentations: out with the old stuffy presentations, it’s all about marketing presentations that use striking visuals and emotional storytelling. (The presentation design agency Buffalo 7, are a great service to help you jump on this trend)!
• Artificial intelligence: an increased number of businesses will use chatbots to deploy 24/7 customer service. In 2020, we will see chatbots mimicking the language used between friends on social messaging apps.